As a big fan of Poornima Vijayashanker and her the work she does helping techies develop their careers, I was thrilled to have the chance to chat with her on the latest episode of <Build> on her Femgineer TV channel. The subject was the topic of my latest book, Writing to Be Understood, and how […]
Technology marketing
Three Myths About Free Trials
Everybody loves a free trial. Customers love free trials because they can test out a solution before buying it or subscribing, reducing their risk. Marketing and sales teams believe they accelerate the sales process. The free trial is a favorite marketing and sales strategy for subscription-based businesses. Yet the free trial is more complex and subtle than either […]
Why Customer Success is Marketings New Best Friend (or Should Be)
Marketing and Customer Success are like two people in a canoe. Ideally, you’re both trying to get to the same place (a successful business with happy customers). The trip is much easier when you work together well. And in choppy waters, you need to communicate or you’ll end up off course or capsized. Many businesses […]
Startup Marketing through Content: A Review of Content Inc
Reading Joe Pulizzi’s new book Content Inc is a welcome shock for someone who lives in the engineering-driven, growth-hacking Silicon Valley. The book’s message: start your business by building an audience with content, before you write a line of code. Once you own the loyal audience, figure out what that community wants and build it. Wait—what? Content […]
Marketing Above the Noise by Linda Popky
A Call to Reason and Strategy As soon as I read this statement, I knew I’d like Linda Popky’s new book: “It’s time to move the discussion away from today’s latest hot marketing tools and tactics to what really counts: convincing customers to trust you with their business – not just once, but time and […]
Minimum Viable Messaging for Startups
Few things make a content developer (aka writer) happier than a complete product messaging roadmap. For details, see What the Writer Wants from a Product Messaging Document. We know that content development and review cycles will be smooth sailing if there’s a well-developed product messaging map at the start. But as with any rule, there’s an exception […]